


You Do Not Believe Me

by Hevheia



Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [14]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Canon Temporary Character Death, Drowning, F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:28:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28960971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hevheia/pseuds/Hevheia
Summary: Andromache may have stopped the search for Quynh, but her attempts to get her love back from the grasp of the ocean will never cease. She has not given up on her, and she will prove it.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko
Series: The Old Guard Duolingo Prompts [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952467
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	You Do Not Believe Me

**Author's Note:**

> Please take note of the tags. <3
> 
> Prompt: You do not believe me (Tu non mi credi)

Andromache has not been to the sea in 183 years. Not any sea. She has seen it from afar on a handful of inattentive occasions, but every time, she quickly averts her gaze.

She hasn’t even set foot on a ship. They remind her too much of endless years in desperate hunt, feverishly searching every cubic inch of water. Her stomach permanently turned upside down in nausea, her mind coming apart at the seams, her heart tearing itself to shreds without its counterpart. 

No, she does not set foot on a ship again. She cannot. Even for long travels, she finds other ways. She has all the time in the world, hasn’t she? She tells Nicolò and Yusuf to take a boat, that she will catch up with them, but they never do. They do not leave her alone and without complaining, they take the long road with her. 

She is silently grateful for that.

A ship would have taken them faster to this place as well, a city in the North of France where they are on the lookout for some corrupt nobility. Their plan of action was to infiltrate to get more information, and so far it is going well. Nicolò is getting himself in the inner circles of the local aristocracy with Yusuf’s help and Andromache makes sure to listen carefully to all the gossip the women exchange. They are almost there, and this ball tonight might give them the last information they need.

But as Andromache mingles with the ladies, their words slide past her like drops across a bird’s feathers. 

The windows look out upon the sea. 

She tries to keep her eyes from falling on them, tries to keep her back towards them at all times. Still, she can hear its rushing, its waves rolling to shore as if it’s whispering in her ear. It drowns out the chatter and the music, makes the hair on the back of her neck rise. 

The corset is stifling. The room is too hot, bearing down on her with all those people stuffed inside. The walls are shrinking, leaving nothing but window she is so desperately trying to avoid. The waves roar and roar and roar.

“Andrea, are you not feeling well?” one of the ladies asks.

Andromache blinks at her, trying to focus on her face. It’s hard when she can’t breathe, she can’t-

“I need to get some air,” she says, not even knowing if it’s the right language. She doesn’t care. She leaves, trying to check her pace until she’s out of the mansion. 

Once she’s outside of its light’s glow, she lifts her skirts and starts running. Right towards the sea.

She trips over her dress, crashing face down on the ground. She curses the restricting garments and rips at them until they give her the freedom she needs, the wounds of her fall already healing. She kicks off the stifling shoes and runs off again on bare feet.

They sink into the loose sand, slowing her pace even though she fights against it. The sea’s rush is getting louder and louder, almost deafening. It stretches out before her, until it disappears behind the horizon. It is restless tonight, the waves growling in their never-ending dance of push and pull. Of leaving and returning and leaving. But always, always, returning. 

“Quynh!” Andromache screams at the top of her lungs, as the sand releases her feet from its greedy hands. She flies over the wet beach, forcing her legs to go faster and faster still. The icy wind is slicing at her cheeks, snatching her hair from its careful hairdo. 

She stops right at the waterline, just as it recedes again. 

“Quynh!” she screams again, louder, dragging her name out as it rips through the air. “Quynh! I have not forgotten you! I have not given up on you!” She is tearing her voice apart to make herself be heard over the waves and the wind and across the endless miles to the bottom of the sea.

“I have not given up on you!” she sobs, as she takes a step forward. “I haven’t.” 

She falls to her knees, unable to bear the suffocating weight in her chest any longer. The sea returns, engulfing her. Her arms are trembling to keep her upright as she tries to bite the sobs back. 

“You do not believe me,” she chokes out. “You do not believe me, but I will prove it to you.” She lifts her head. The waves break and foam before her. Her trembling hand hovers over the water as it surrounds her again. “I am coming for you, my love.”

She stands up and runs into the sea. 

She doesn’t feel the cold biting at her skin, she doesn’t feel the sting of salt in her eyes and lungs. When the water becomes too deep to stand, she dives and swims. What remains of her dress is dragging her down. As is the blade stripped to her thigh. She clenches her teeth and keeps swimming.

The waves are crashing over her, sending her back to shore and making her gulp mouthfuls of water. She doesn’t know how long she has been swimming or how far she has gotten. There’s only the salty water and the sound of her heart pounding and Quynh screaming at her from an iron coffin.

She drowns. And after the first time she does it again and again and again. And it is agony and it is relief. Look, my love, look we are together now. We are together in this drowning sea. I am with you, I am with you, I am with you. 

Maybe she did it on purpose the first time.

Time slips away from her as she wakes and dies in her never-ending dance of leaving and returning. In the excruciating moments between blissful deaths, she thinks this is it. That she is lost to the world too. That she will never leave her heart again. She stops fighting and gives herself to the sea.

Until she gasps awake and there is no more water to fill her lungs. When her mind is clear enough to take in her surroundings, she realises she’s lying in a small boat. The sound of Nicolò’s voice drifts to her ears, talking reassurances. He dries her skin and helps her sip some water. Yusuf is rowing to shore, his eyes unmistakably red from crying even though he tries to hide it. They are both soaked to the bone as well. 

When they have brought her safely to their safe house, they wash her and help her change into clean clothes and comb her hair and never leave her side. They hold her as she shivers and shakes and cries her soul out for her heart that’s still lost at sea.


End file.
